Arabs and Africans pawns in a chess game

The times though have been difficult these past couple of years. The year 2011 is proving a year of turmoil as the world - from Tokyo through Abidjan to Tripoli, Cairo, Tunis and Manama; and from Harare to Port AU Prince. Foreign policy practitioners and relief workers are having the busiest of times; people in some of these places meanwhile have their fate in the hands of a few others in places notably absent from the list above - in Paris, London, Washington and, it appears, in Brussels.

The international community though has been a hugely divisive force, led unashamedly by French president Nicholas Sarkozy.